A SIGHT TO SEA

CYAN skies and turquoise waters? Check.

Sweeping white sand beaches fringed by coconut palms? Check. Oh-so friendly locals greeting you with an easy smile wherever you go? Check.

Mauritius does a fantastic job of ticking offyour idyllic tropical island cliché checklist.

You also get jagged jungle-clad peaks, lush lowlands and endless swathes of sugar cane that produce the rum for candy-coloured cocktails sipped at sunset. (Like rocket fuel they were, good enough reason to go in themselves.)

But what I found most interesting was its fascinating and unique cultural mix. Indian and African. French and British. A sprinkling of Chinese.

The official language is English, but the de facto tongue is a Patois French called Creole. The food and religion is mostly of Indian origin, but the music and dancing is African. Everything else seems to be a mix of them all.

Here’s what I found in this small island nation – at 790 sq mi it’s the same size as Tenerife – adrift in the Indian Ocean.

A kaleidoscope of folk

The people of Mauritius reflect the nation’s colonial past. The island was uninhabited until the Dutch tried to settle there in 1638. But their attempts were allegedly scuppered by rampaging monkeys brought over by Portuguese sailors (be warned, the descendants of these mischievous macaques are alive and stealing snacks today).

The French then had a go from 1715, bringing over slaves from Africa and Madagascar to work on the sugar plantations. But Mauritius was seized by the British in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars and, after slavery was abolished, hundreds of thousands of indentured labourers were brought over from India.